Ride Along
by Aryll Jaynn
Summary: It's hot day at Great Hyrule Theme Park, and Link wants nothing more than to avoid riding one of the most dangerous roller coasters in the land. However, things change when he meets someone who is more than willing to make sure he does.


**Hey everyone! This kinda came out of nowhere, but it's just a little thingy I felt a strong urge to finish recently. I should probably be studying right now. Oh well! I hope you enjoy :)**

 **~Aryll Jaynn**

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Ride Along

It was a really hot, sunny afternoon at the Great Hyrule Theme Park. And when I say hot, I'm not kidding. It was literally like, 100 degrees. I was sweating so much, it's a miracle girls were still talking to me afterwards. So far, I'd gone through ten full bottles of water, three sticks of deodorant, and 5 trips to the bathroom.

I was there with my friends, Sheik and Pipit, who were honestly the craziest people on the planet. They'd be willing to go on the most ridiculous rides and live to tell the tale.

They heard about this one ride, The Demise, and even though I informed them that even the name implies death, the idiots still wanted to ride it. Just the name itself made my heart throb with anxiety and my stomach knot up.

I prefer not to tell anyone, but I'm not really a huge fan of amusement parks. They stress me out. Like math tests. And science tests. And just tests in general.

Because on a test, you only have one chance, and if something screws up, you're done for.

You could say the same about amusement parks.

If anything goes wrong on the ride, that's it. You're done. No more second chances. You'll either be flying off six-hundred feet in the air or plummeting to the ground to your inevitable death.

And that's not really something I find 'amusing'.

Okay, so I might be exaggerating a bit, but I swear, it happens! And I'm not taking any chances!

So when Sheik and Pipit dragged me over to possibly the biggest, tallest, fastest ride in the park, I found it extremely hard to not lose my groove.

"Shut up, weirdo, you'll be fine," assured my younger sister, Aryll. Oh yeah, forgot to mention. She was there too, and I think it's safe to say that she and I are complete and polar opposites. She is a mad thrill-seeker who'd do anything to test the biggest rides before they open. She actually was going to do it once last summer, but my grandmother stopped her by saying "Oh, Aryll, don't do it. You wouldn't want Link to see you doing such a thing and start crying out in public, would you?"

So, being the amazingly sweet little sister she is, she happily declined by telling the park's manager that she wouldn't do it because her older brother didn't wish to be seen crying in public because he's a "stupid coward."

She's a real dear, that Aryll. Always looking out for me.

"Yeah, listen to your sis," Sheik said, shoving me. "You gotta strengthen up, man."

"How else are you gonna get girls?" asked Pipit, a snarky look on his freckled face.

I rolled my eyes. "I don't know, maybe I'll find a girlfriend who isn't as insane as you guys!"

"Woman up," Aryll said, blowing a strand of her short, blond hair out of her eyes.

I sighed and looked ahead of me, seeing all the heads turned towards the giant majesty that was The Demise. It was starting to get a little late, I realized. The park would be closing soon. The sky gradually turning from blue to a light shade of pink.

"This is going to be great!" laughed a girl in front of us. She had on black shorts with a red tank top, which matched her glowing ruby eyes and sort of complimented her very pale skin. She was with two other girls, and all three of them looked familiar for some reason.

"I know, right? This is our first time going on a real scary roller-coaster together!" said the second girl. She had bright blue eyes and vibrant red hair, tied in two messy pigtails, with most of her head covered by a yellow beret.

"I'm excited." the last girl said a bit dully. She had long, golden hair and was turned away from me, so I couldn't see her face.

The red-eyed girl sighed in exasperation. "Zel! For Nayru's sake, put that book away!" she cried, snatching it out of the blonde girl's hands.

Wow, rude.

"Midna!" the girl said, sounding equally as exasperated as her friend. "I need to study for that test on Tuesday!"

The red-head giggled and patted the blonde's back. "Zel, you're going to be fine. Besides, it's Sunday! That means no studying!"

"Especially since we're at the amusement park." agreed the first girl, Midna. That's when I realized that she was one of the students in the Ancient Hylian class period before mine. Go figure.

"All right, fine." the blonde girl amended, taking the book back from Midna. As she turned around to put it in her backpack, I caught a glimpse of her eyes: amazingly sapphire blue, like the ocean on a stormy night.

"Damn," whispered Pipit right in my ear, scaring the living daylights out of me.

"Pipit! What the hell!" I cried, snapping around.

He chuckled, his grin illuminating the freckles on his face. "Checking out a girl, I see."

Aryll giggled next to me and Sheik raised an eyebrow. I blushed.

"I mean, I don't blame you, man. She's pretty."

I restrained from punching him. "First of all, shut up. Second of all, I wasn't checking her out, and third of all, I don't even know her."

"Hey, not true!" Aryll defended. "Isn't she in your PE class?"

"What? How would you even know that?" I asked, severely confused but not at all surprised. That's another thing about Aryll, she's extremely snoopy and knows more about my life and others' than her own. Heck, she probably even knows when the last time I used the bathroom at school was!

"That's Zelda Nohansen, sophomore, just like you dorks, takes honors classes and is in advanced Hylian. Very impressive GPA, takes harp lessons, lives with her mom, dad, older brother. The only thing she takes lightly is PE, so she's not as athletic as old 'I need to get an under five second mile' over here," she said, elbowing me.

"You never fail to amaze me," Sheik said, bewildered. If I didn't know any better, I'd say the punk has a huge crush on my sister. I mean, most older brothers would be totally weirded out by the fact that their best friend likes their younger sister, but with Sheik and Aryll it's kinda different. I mean, Aryll's not that much younger than us. She's a freshman. Plus, opposites attract, and I've never seen anyone smarter than Aryll and dumber than Sheik, so it works.

"What are you, a walking, talking Wikipedia?" Pipit asked her.

Aryll rolled her eyes. "No way, bub. Wikipedia isn't a credible source like I am."

"Sure it's not," Sheik muttered.

I couldn't resist grinning. Sheik uses Wikipedia almost religiously for school, saying that it's "way easier to use." He even gets straight C's thanks to it.

"That's ridiculous, Aryll. It's not physically possible to run a mile in five seconds." I retorted.

"Whatever, bro. Same general concept."

"So the reason Romeo here hasn't noticed her before is because he runs fast and she doesn't?" Pipit clarified.

"Yup!" Aryll stated proudly. "But now that you have, Link, you should totally go talk to her."

I scoffed. "As if. It's not like I'm gonna go talk to someone I barely know just because you guys told me to."

"You're into 'er, right?" Sheik asked.

"No!"

"Hey." a different voice said from in front of us.

It was the red-head girl who was talking to Midna and the blonde girl, who I guess was named Zelda. I wanted to bang my head against a wall. Dear Farore, what if she had been listening to us?

"Hi, Karane." Aryll greeted her. "What's up?"

The red-head raised an eyebrow. "You know my name?"

"Oh, is that not it? I just heard your friends over there saying it a few times." Aryll explained, gesturing over.

I silently chuckled. Aryll sure knew how to act innocent. I mean, she couldn't just say, "Oh yeah, I know everything about you, your family, your cat, what food you buy for your cat, and your shoe size!" to everyone because, well...that just wouldn't come out right...and we'd probably get sent to the police station...

An amused smile formed upon Karane's face. "No, you're right. That was silly of me. Anyway, my friend and I need to step out of line for a bit. We were just wondering if that's okay with you. Our friend Zelda's going to stay, but we understand if you don't appreciate one person holding the place for three." Karane said, looking at all three of us.

"It's cool," Pipit answered. He was looking from Karane to Zelda, who's face was still turned back, and then to Midna, who had already stepped out of line and was waiting for Karane. He then turned to look at Sheik and Aryll, then at me, and I suddenly felt kind of uneasy.

"You know what? I'm kinda hungry," he said casually. "You, Sheik?"

"Yeah, I could go for a hamburger..."

"Aryll?"

"I need a soda refill." she replied, a crazed look in her sea-green eyes.

He smirked at me. "Link?"

"Um, I'm good..."

"Great! So you can stay in line for us while we get food, right?"

"Wha-?"

"Oh! You guys can come with me and Midna!" Karane offered. "We're headed to the Food Court."

"Sounds great!" Aryll said. "Link, stay here, okay? We'll be back in five! Love you!" she quickly hugged me around the waist and then her, Sheik, and Pipit ran out of line towards the other direction before I could even say anything.

"Wait, guys!" I called uselessly after them. Then I groaned in frustration.

"Got ditched too, huh?" a familiar voice asked.

My heart skipped a beat. The girl, Zelda, was talking to me.

Well, crap. I thought. Now I'm even more sweaty...

Her eyes were glistening and she wore a gentle smile on her face.

"Oh...uh, yeah, seems like it."

"It's okay. We can be ditchees together." she offered a cute little smile over her shoulder.

I blinked for a second and them attempted to smile back.

"You're...Link, right? I think I've seen you in my PE class," she said, her eyes glowing curiously.

"Yeah, sixth period, Mr Barrehem?"

"Yup! Goddesses, I swear I run into at least one person I know whenever I come here."

I laughed. "Really?"

"Yes! Sometimes, it's fine because I see friends. Other times...not so much."

"How come?"

She chuckled, "Well...this one time I was here with my parents and brother, and I ran into Ms. Marie!"

"Oh, Farore..." I said, feeling sorry. Ms. Marie was the single most fun-disrupting person on the planet. Ironic how she'd be at an amusement park.

"I know, right? It was horrible! She took up almost twenty-five minutes talking to me about this random project that she wanted me to get started on or something like that...ugh. And then I was stressed about that throughout the whole day!"

"That sucks! Ms. Marie really is the worst." I offered. "Depriving kids of their fun even on holidays..."

"Agreed."

We stood in silence for a few minutes.

"It's, uh, pretty hot today, huh?" I said lamely, mentally cursing myself. I just really can't stand awkward silences.

"Ugh, yeah." she responded, fanning herself with a park map. "I hate the heat. Cold is much more my thing. What about you?"

I shrugged. "I'll take any weather, save for the heat. I prefer it to be pleasant though."

Another silence. I felt like screaming at the top of my lungs just to have some sort of event happen. Even worse than that, the line was slowly starting to get closer to the entrance of the ride.

"Hey, Link?"

I looked down at her.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, why?"

"You're kinda clenching your fists and sweating a bit..." she remarked, studying me closely.

I felt myself go red. "Oh, no, I'm fine. Really."

"Are you nervous about the roller coaster?"

Now, I was probably a deep shade of crimson. "No! I mean, uh, kind of...but no, not really, I just-"

"Hey," Zelda chirped, smiling slightly, "It's okay to be scared! I am too, you know."

"Well, you're way better at hiding it than me..."

She laughed. She had a really adorable laugh. "Hopefully our friends come back soon. They're the ones who dragged us here in the first place."

"Yeah...And—Oh, crap! It's our turn!"

She turned to look forward, where a grumpy old man stood with a scowl fixed upon his face. I felt nauseous.

"Next," he growled.

"Uh..." I stuttered, looking behind me. There was no one else behind us. Zelda and I were the last ones in line, and I was guessing it was because the ride was about to close for the day.

"Sorry, sir," Zelda said, bailing me out, "we were waiting for our friends. Can you keep the ride open a few minutes longer?"

"Either ride it now, or don't." he said, eyes narrowing dangerously. "If I keep the ride open, there'll be more people. More people, more rides. More rides, more work for me and less time I get to go home and think about my crappy life."

Well, damn. I thought. Isn't he just a ball of sunshine.

Taken aback, Zelda cleared her throat. "I'm...uh, sorry to hear about that. But I'm sure our friends are on their way. Can you please wait for like, two minutes at the most?"

"No! Kid, you either ride or ya don't! Okay?!"

I felt the anger rising up. How dare he talk to us that way?

"Look Mr-" I started, my fists clenching slowly.

Zelda interrupted me. "Alright, sir. We'll ride it."

"Yeah! Wait. NO! ZELDA!" I yelled, gaping at her.

She giggled. "Come on, Link! It'll be fun, trust me!"

"What happened to you being scared?"

"I was trying to make you feel better."

Psh! I don't need her sympathy! How dare she patronize me like that-

Suddenly, she grabbed my hand and squeezed it tightly as she pulled me through the gate and into the roller coaster area.

I wordlessly followed, though my heart was racing, not only because I was about to get on a roller coaster that could potentially kill me, but also because of Zelda's warm, soft hand around mine. For some reason, I felt a strange rush of nostalgia. The smell of the sky and light breeze enveloped me in its warmth and it was almost as if I'd known Zelda my entire life. It felt unearthly.

That feeling was quickly replaced, however, with a pit in my stomach almost as deep as the Great Sea.

The man, whose name tag read "Linebeck", led us to the middle of the coaster, where Zelda hopped in first, dragging me with her. Her hand was still clutched tightly around mine, as if worried that if she let go, I'd run away, which was probably true. These heart palpitations were not healthy, I decided.

"Zelda, I don't know about this..." I said nervously as the restraints slowly descended onto our shoulders.

She turned to me, her sapphire eyes smiling mischievously. "Think about it! This will be the ultimate revenge on our friends. They made us stand here all day, and now they'll miss the ride and we won't!"

"But what if-"

I didn't finish my sentence. The roller coaster started moving, and I found myself unconsciously grabbing Zelda by the arm, my eyes wide with anxiety and fear.

"Z-Zeld-!"

"Link! It's going to be okay!" she laughed. I tried searching for reassurance in her voice, but it was futile.

I was prepared for the worst.

All at once, there was a flurry of motion as we picked up speed, and I shut my eyes tight.

Wind swung past us, and Zelda's hair whipped against my face. She was screaming with joy; I was screaming in pure terror. Although, part of me (a very, VERY small part, mind you) was enjoying the way she held on to my arm just as tightly as I held on to hers.

We started to slow down. I was breathing heavily, my eyes still shut tight. "Is it...Is it over?" I asked tentatively.

"Not quite," she gasped. I felt her hands reach over and open my eyes for me. What I saw dropped my jaw at least ten feet: an incline so steep, it was almost as if we were going straight up, ninety-degrees.

I gulped, unable to find words. This is it, I'm done for. What a time it's been on this wonderful land.

"Link, we're almost at the top!" Zelda cried.

I gasped in amazement at the view. Soft, dusty pink clouds overtook the sky, and the last remains of day were in view. I felt almost safe for that moment, looking at the wonderful land of Hyrule at the border between night and day. But then...

"Oh dear Farore-" I screamed quite unattractively as we dropped, holding on to Zelda and the shoulder restraints for dear life. The drop was just as Pipit and Sheik said; it was like flying. Only, I've been paragliding before, and this was nothing like it. At. All.

This was...better.

Oh Goddesses, this is actually really fun! I feel so alive...Zelda probably thinks I'm a wuss. Oh well! Wait till Aryll and the others hear about this! No more name calling, no more laughing, no more...

My heart finally ceased pounding uncontrollably once we'd reached the bottom. I was grinning madly, probably freaking Zelda out.

"See, Link? You did it!" Zelda said, giving me a high-five. "I knew you could. You just had to find your courage!"

I laughed sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess it wasn't as bad as I thought. I may have...overreacted a little."

"A little?" she teased.

I turned red yet again. "Oh...well uh, was it really that obvious?"

She shook her head. "Definitely not."

Even I could tell she was trying to hold back laughter. I grumbled, "You don't have to lie. Just say I sounded like an idiot!"

She started to laugh then, but her giggles were so disarming I couldn't help but join her.

We stood there, laughing uncontrollably until I saw the others in the distance, walking over to the gate of The Demise.

Aryll had a look of pure disbelief on her face as she ran over to me and watched as Linebeck slammed the gate shut and flipped the sign that read "Closed for the day. Come back soon!"

"Dammit!" she cursed. "You idiots, I told you we had to hurry. Now it's closed!" She looked angrily at Sheik and Pipit.

"It's not my fault there was a long line," Pipit said defensively. "Besides, we had to wait for Karane and Midna."

Karane glared at him, though she seemed amused. "And what is that supposed to mean?"

"Pipit, you're the one who needed to use the bathroom twice!" Midna reminded him, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, and you said you needed to stop by to fill up your water bottle," mumbled Sheik.

Pipit grinned cheerfully. "Oops! Guess I lost track of time. I'm sorry."

The little jerk, I thought. He had this whole thing planned from the start!

I smirked at Aryll. "Hey, don't worry about it, Aryll. I'll tell you what you missed."

"Don't tell me you rode the roller coaster."

I grinned widely, enjoying the look of jealousy on her face.

"No way, I don't believe you. Zelda, is it true?"

Zelda smiled, nodding. "He sure did! I mean, it was really hard to get him to actually come with me. I had to literally drag him, I'm sorry about that, Link, by the way, but after it was over, he seemed to really enjoy it!"

Aryll, for once, was speechless. I ruffled her hair. "See? I'm not as much of a wuss as you think I am!"

She rolled her eyes. "You'll always be a wuss to me. Anyway, we need to go. The park's closing soon."

"How about we all go grab some dinner?" suggested Karane.

"Sounds good to me!" Pipit said. I swear, I could see little blush marks on his cheeks when Karane smiled at him.

"I'm down," said Sheik.

"Same." Midna said boredly, checking her phone.

"I could eat," I said, and Aryll nodded. "Zelda, what about you?"

I saw that she'd pulled out her book once again. She looked up and blushed as everyone stared at her in disbelief.

"What? I told you I need to study for that test!"

It was my turn to grab her by the hand. "Come on, stop being a nerd!" I said, laughing at the look of shock on her face as I pulled her and started running.

"Last one to the parking lot is a rotten Cucco egg!" I yelled childishly at the others.

"Hey, why are you kidnapping Zelda?!" Karane exclaimed, starting to run after us. Midna and Sheik laughed and started after us as well.

"Oh it's ON!" cried Pipit, following suite.

"Link! Wait up!" Aryll shouted, catching up to Pipit in an instant.

Zelda was still holding my hand tightly, despite me running at a speed that was probably way faster than she was used to.

"I'm going—gasp-to kill you!" she cried.

I just laughed. "It's called revenge, Zelda."

Sweet, sweet revenge.

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 **Yeah, the end was rushed, but like I said, I should probably be studying instead of writing fanfiction. I hope you enjoyed that! I promise I'll get back to Link's Harem soon, I just felt like finishing this one since I've had it uncompleted for over a year now. Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!**


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